Discard Trope: Unorthodox Love Affirmation

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Created By: LadyJuse on April 23, 2013 Last Edited By: LadyJuse on April 30, 2013

Unorthodox Love Affirmation

A special way to for two people to say 'I love you'

Name Space:Main

Page Type:Trope

Sometimes, saying I love you is not enough. This is where the "Unorthodox Love Affirmation" comes in.

The Fault in Our Stars, two characters where seen making out and saying 'Always'. It also has one for the leading characters 'Okay'

Ghost: While he was alive, when Molly told Sam "I love you" he responded with "ditto," which ticked her off. After he became a ghost, he used this as a Trust Password to prove to Molly that he really was speaking through a psychic.

Ghost: While he was alive, when Molly told Sam "I love you" he responded with "ditto," which ticked her off. After he becomes a ghost, he uses this as a Trust Password to prove to Molly that it is really him speaking through a psychic.

I can see a trope for unique ways for characters to say I love you. Not for the specific word. I would also immediately take out the implication that something like the Supernatural one would work, because that tells me that we're going to see a lot of audience reactions of people assuming they mean "I love you".

There is one such scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, where Harry is watching Snape's memories; Snape casts his Patronus for Dumbledore, to demonstrate that it has the same doe form as Lily Evans', leading to the exchange: "After all this time?" "Always."

As for the trope name, I would suggest "Your Own Special Way" after the Genesis song.

A Cut Song from Little Shop Of Horrors called "The Worse He Treats Me" had Audrey singing about how she knows Orin loves her because he hits her. There's a demo recording of the song on the most recent Cast Recording as a Bonus Track.

The problem with that is that a Love Confession heavily implies that it's a first-time-only thing. I was thinking of Unorthodox Declaration Of Love but ran into the same problem. Love Confession is even worse in that regard.

^Well, if three people already agreed on the name change, it's not a stockphrase.

The PSOC bit... it definitely can have a meaning for the characters. Asserting their love in such a way could denote that they are incredibly insecure about what they're saying. It could mean (a) there's something perfect about their relationship, (b) there's something wrong with their relationship that they haven't discussed yet, or (c) they're crazy for the other person.

... the way it's titled and the laconic makes it seem like it, and OP's decision to stick with said title makes it look that way, but it's not a stock phrase. Now, he didn't do a good job establishing the significance of the trope, but I don't think it's Chairs.

On Dollhouse Senator Perrin and his wife appear to have this. "You're my knight in shining armor." "And you're my beautiful damsel." This later turns out to be handler-active protocol for keeping Perrin in check.

Fairy May: Nothing. It's just that no one has said they loved me this livelong day.

Mrs. Savage: Why, yes they have, Fairy.

Fairy: Oh, no they haven't. I've been waiting.

Mrs. Savage: I heard Florence say it at the dinner table.

Fairy: Did she?

Florence: Did I?

Mrs. Savage: She said, "Don't eat too fast, Fairy."

Fairy: Was that saying she loved me?

Mrs. Savage: Of course. People say it when they say, "Take an umbrella, it's raining" - or "Hurry back" - or even "Watch out, you'll break your neck." There're hundreds of ways of wording it - you just have to listen for it, my dear.

Fairy: (brightening) My dentist said I had perfect occlusion. Do you think he was telling me he loved me?

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